ABC’s summary suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! over the host’s callous remarks regarding the assassination of Charlie Kirk quickly became the top story across the insular Acela Media. CNN’s NewsNight with Abby Phillip was no exception. The panel discussion was devoted almost entirely to the issue of whether the suspension is the result of market forces and the unsustainability of the late-night talk show model, or outright corporate censorship.    .@ScottJenningsKY: Do I defend Jimmy Kimmel going on TV and saying a shooter from the left...he has a right to do so but he does not have the right to have a television show where he lies his ass off to the American people and attacks half this country on a nightly basis. pic.twitter.com/S3Hihn94Zc — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) September 18, 2025 SCOTT JENNINGS: You use the phrase “propaganda”, professor. And I just have to ask you, what do you consider what Jimmy Kimmel was doing every night, or what Stephen Colbert was doing by having on only Democratic guests? Jimmy Kimmel Monday night flat lied about the shooter back in the spring. He egged his audience on in cheering on the violence against and wanting kind of wishing, I think, the downfall of a publicly traded company, Tesla. Do you consider that to be propaganda? Is it good for a business?  JEFF JARVIS: Do you consider that to be free speech, Scott? JENNINGS: You use the phrase propaganda. JARVIS: I'm asking you. You used the words free speech before. Do you consider that free speech? JENNINGS: I consider it to be speech. And he's obviously free to say it. JARVIS: Are you willing to defend that speech? In this country that defends- that will defend to the death the speech of others. Will you defend Jimmy Kimmel's speech? JENNINGS: Do I defend Jimmy Kimmel going on television and saying that a shooter from the left... JARVIS: Do you defend the right to do so? JENNINGS: he has a right to do so but he does not have the right to have a television show where he lies his ass off to the American people and attacks half this country on a nightly basis. ABBY PHILLIP: Well, hold on- whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa This was in response to liberal professor Jeff Jarvis bemoaning that the legacy media is either dying or being bought up by rapacious billionaires and turned into propaganda outlets. And Jennings let Jarvis have it, with a question that he was ultimately unable to answer before Abby Phillip stepped in with the cutoff save. What is late night TV these days if not liberal propaganda? It certainly isn’t Carson or Leno doing middle-of-the-road bipartisan humor (Letterman was always a lib). This new crop of hosts turned late night into a hyperpartisan refuge for Democrats. And so there should be no surprise or sympathy when a corporate parent decides to pull the plug on, in this case, Kimmel’s show when the model is hemorrhaging money.  Once a public interest was established, Jarvis tried to pin Jennings down and ask him whether he thinks he should be kicked off the network for violating that standard. Here, again, Jennings shuts him down: .@ScottJenningsKY: I expect to get fired every day. This is a tough business. And if I were Jimmy Kimmel, I mean, I'm surprised that a guy who once wore blackface and caused large-breasted women to jump on trampolines lasted this long in the media business to begin with. He was… pic.twitter.com/NduF2PD5Pv — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) September 18, 2025 JARVIS: Scott. Scott. I'm not going to tell you anything you don't know here. You sometimes offend people. I hear about it on the socials. Do you think that you should then be held to the same standard that you're asking for, that if someone says that you're offensive, that you're not doing civic discourse, that CNN should kick you off? I'm not worried about you and that happening to you in the present regime, but I am worried about other people in this building. JENNINGS: Two things. We're not- we don't fall under the same statutory regime, A. B: I expect to get fired every day. This is a tough business. And if I were Jimmy Kimmel, I mean, I'm surprised that a guy who once wore blackface and caused large-breasted women to jump on trampolines lasted this long in the media business to begin with. He was long past his sell-date, and the fact that he couldn't realize that and was going down this road of partisan hackery, being unfunny and demonizing half the country is wild. Jennings recognizes more readily than most that the entertainment industry is ephemeral, which Jarvis did not expect to hear. And then Jennings makes the case for Kimmel being gone long ago. Kimmel’s Man Show antics were certainly cancellation fodder during the Me Too era, but yet he survived. And rather than gaining humility, Kimmel was emboldened to go on this political path.  It is not clear whether Kimmel will return to television. On tonight’s ThunderDome, Jennings made a compelling market-based argument against that.